Areas
The Lakes: Buying Guide, Prices & Listings
A gated Emirates Living villa and townhouse community bordered by two golf courses, established as one of Emaar's original freehold masterplans.
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Highlights
About The Lakes
The Lakes is one of Emaar’s founding Emirates Living villa communities, developed in the early 2000s alongside The Springs, The Meadows, Emirates Hills and Jumeirah Islands as part of Emaar’s original master-planned freehold portfolio along the Al Khail Road corridor. It sits immediately beside Emirates Hills and neighbours The Meadows, positioned between two golf courses — the Address Montgomerie Golf Club and the Emirates Golf Club — a setting that anchors much of the community’s identity and its pricing relative to its Emirates Living neighbours. The Lakes is smaller and more tightly held than The Springs or The Meadows: around 600 villas and townhouses spread across six numbered sub-communities — Hattan, Deema, Maeen, Zulal, Forat and Ghadeer — each arranged around its own stretch of internal lake or golf-course frontage. Like the rest of Emirates Living, the community has been fully built out and trading on the resale market for more than two decades, giving it a genuine, DLD-recorded transaction history rather than the thinner data set of a newer masterplan.
The Lakes in a nutshell
A freehold, gated villa and townhouse community squeezed between two of Dubai’s best-known golf courses, with a mature lake-and-garden landscape and one of the smaller unit counts among Emaar’s original Emirates Living communities. It suits buyers who want a quieter, more golf-oriented alternative to The Springs or The Meadows and are comfortable paying a premium for lake or fairway frontage; it is less of a fit for buyers who want the lowest entry price in Emirates Living or a school inside the gates, since The Lakes leans on its neighbouring sub-communities and nearby Dubai Marina for schooling, healthcare and larger-scale shopping rather than providing all of it on site.
Neighbourhood
Property types and sub-communities
The Lakes offers both villas and townhouses, ranging from 3 to 7 bedrooms, spread across six sub-communities: Hattan, Deema, Maeen, Zulal, Forat and Ghadeer. Bayut’s own popularity data, based on buyer search activity, ranks Maeen, Zulal, Ghadeer, Deema and Forat as the community’s most sought-after clusters. Live listings checked for this guide show villas ranging from roughly 2,230 sq ft (a 3-bedroom in Zulal) up to 5,558 sq ft (a corner unit in Ghadeer), alongside a smaller stock of dedicated townhouses in Zulal and Deema. Hattan sits apart from the other five clusters as the community’s more exclusive, golf-facing enclave; it does not appear among Bayut’s most-searched clusters, which points to thinner resale turnover there than in the other five.
Freehold status — who can buy
The Lakes is registered with the Dubai Land Department as a freehold community, open to all nationalities, under the framework set out in Regulation No. 3 of 2006 and the designations added since — Emirates Living was among the earliest master-communities brought into Dubai’s designated-freehold map. As with any Dubai freehold purchase, confirm a specific villa’s registration status via DLD or the Dubai REST app before signing.
Golden Visa eligibility
The property-investor Golden Visa requires a Dubai Land Department valuation of at least AED 2,000,000. The Lakes clears this by a wide margin at every bedroom size: Bayut’s own listings-based averages put even a 2-bedroom villa at roughly AED 5,400,000 — more than double the threshold on a single unit — rising to roughly AED 8,353,000 for a 3-bedroom and AED 20,049,000 for a 5-bedroom. This makes The Lakes one of the more comfortably-qualifying Emirates Living communities for Golden Visa purposes, ahead of both The Springs and, at the smaller end, The Meadows.
Handover and completion status
The Lakes is fully built out and has been for many years — this is not a community with phased handovers or active construction sites. All six sub-communities, their lakes, gardens and The Lakes Club are complete and long-established, which removes the usual off-plan and snagging risk that comes with buying into a newer Dubai masterplan.
Sales trends and price per square foot
Like The Springs and The Meadows, The Lakes did not appear as a standalone line item in Bayut’s citywide Dubai Sales Market Report H1 2026 (published 29 Jul 2026), which is DLD-transaction-based but limited to a set of larger or higher-profile communities — so Fidu could not source a Lakes-specific price-per-square-foot figure from that report. Bayut’s own villa price index for The Lakes put the community at AED 2,595 per sq ft in July 2026, down 7.61% over the previous 12 months (from AED 2,809/sq ft a year earlier) — a rare declining segment among Emirates Living’s villa stock, in contrast to The Meadows’ 7.47% rise over the same period. The decline is not uniform across bedroom counts: 3-bed villas actually rose 1.67% to AED 2,430/sq ft and 4-bed villas rose 3.40% to AED 2,777/sq ft over the year, while 5-bed villas fell a steep 20.47% to AED 3,058/sq ft and 6-bed villas fell 5.10% to AED 4,718/sq ft — the larger end of the market has driven the overall decline. Separately, Bayut’s own area guide, built from live listings over the trailing 12 months, puts average asking prices at roughly AED 5,400,000 for a 2-bedroom villa, AED 8,353,000 for a 3-bedroom, AED 11,582,000 for a 4-bedroom and AED 20,049,000 for a 5-bedroom. Individual DLD-recorded sales the guide lists as recent examples include a 3-bed villa in Zulal 1 (2,558 sq ft) at AED 6,254,000 on 11 August 2026, a 3-bed villa in Forat (2,881 sq ft) at AED 6,800,000 on 10 August 2026, and a further 3-bed villa in Forat at AED 7,050,000 on 7 August 2026 — individual transactions, not averages, but broadly in line with the listing-based figures above. Treat the averages as a listing-price guide rather than a confirmed market-wide transaction figure.
Rental trends and demand drivers
Bayut’s rent index for The Lakes stood at AED 109 per sq ft in July 2026, up 2.91% over 12 months. By bedroom count, 3-bed villas rented at AED 102/sq ft (-0.31%), 4-bed at AED 112/sq ft (+0.60%), 5-bed at AED 118/sq ft (+4.07%) and 6-bed at AED 170/sq ft (+8.13%) — the larger villas have driven rental growth here, broadly the mirror image of the sales trend above. The same area guide’s asking-rent table, also listings-based, shows average asking rents of AED 250,000 for a 2-bedroom villa, AED 316,000 for a 3-bedroom, AED 506,000 for a 4-bedroom and AED 660,000 for a 5-bedroom. Recent DLD-recorded rental transactions cited in the same guide include a 5-bed renewal in Maeen 1 (4,125 sq ft) at AED 374,220 on 16 September 2026, a 3-bed renewal in Zulal 2 (2,233 sq ft) at AED 248,000 on 15 September 2026, and a 3-bed renewal in Zulal 1 (2,425 sq ft) at AED 210,000 on 1 September 2026. Demand is driven by families who want a quieter, golf-adjacent villa lifestyle within easy reach of Dubai Marina and Media City, plus the pull of the Emirates Living schools clustered nearby, without the density of neighbouring apartment districts.
Gross rental yield
Bayut’s own ROI table for The Lakes, based on user search activity over the trailing 12 months rather than confirmed transactions, shows the highest yield on 2-bedroom villas at 4.74%, falling to 4.03% for 3-bed, 3.39% for 4-bed and 3.10% for 5-bed — smaller units yield noticeably better here than the community’s larger, pricier villas. That puts The Lakes’ best-case yield slightly below The Springs’ 4.15% figure for 2-bed villas, but the gap narrows quickly at 3-bed size, where The Lakes (4.03%) sits almost level with The Springs (4.04%) despite The Lakes’ considerably higher entry price. Yield in The Lakes depends heavily on unit size — more so than in either neighbouring Emirates Living community.
Service charges — what you’ll actually pay
Fidu could not source a current, Lakes-specific service charge rate tied to a named, dated index. Driven Properties’ Service Charge Index puts the general Dubai villa-community band at roughly AED 2–6 per sq ft per year in 2026, well below apartment towers at AED 10–30-plus. The Lakes Club’s relatively large shared amenity base — a 30,000 sq ft clubhouse with a gym, pools, tennis and squash courts and an on-site restaurant — would be expected to sit The Lakes toward the higher end of that villa band relative to a more basic community like The Springs, but this is a reasonable inference rather than a confirmed figure. Check the exact current rate for your specific Lakes cluster and villa type on Mollak, RERA’s official service-charge disclosure platform, before buying.
Transport and parking
The Lakes has no Dubai Metro station inside the community; Al Khail Metro Station on the Red Line is roughly a 6-minute drive away. The Lakes Turnoff Bus Stop, on First Al Khail Street (D86), is served by the RTA’s F31 bus route — a short walk for residents of the Ghadeer cluster, but a drive for the community’s more distant sub-communities. Each villa comes with dedicated parking for one or two vehicles, and — as with every low-rise villa community in Dubai — a car is effectively required for daily life.
Schools and nurseries near The Lakes
The Lakes itself has no full school inside its gates; the nearest options sit in neighbouring Emirates Living sub-communities. Regent International School, in The Greens, teaches the UK National Curriculum from age 3 to 18 — Bayut’s own area guide notes that residents of the Hattan 3 and Ghadeer clusters can reach it on foot — and holds a Very Good overall KHDA rating from its most recently published inspection. A campus of Jumeirah International Nursery Dubai (JINS Regent) sits within the Regent International School grounds, catering to children aged 45 days to 3 years. Dubai International Academy, in adjacent Emirates Hills, teaches the full IB continuum and is widely reported — by the school’s own materials and by third-party school-review sites — as holding an Outstanding KHDA rating for the 2023–2024 inspection cycle; Fidu was not able to load KHDA’s own School-Details page directly to independently confirm this rating while researching this guide, so treat it as reported rather than verified, and check web.khda.gov.ae directly before relying on it. GEMS Dubai American Academy is also a short drive away.
Amenities, healthcare and everyday services
Choithrams operates a supermarket inside The Lakes itself, with a larger Geant Express about 4 minutes away on First Al Khail Street. The Lakes Club is the community’s central amenity hub — a 30,000 sq ft facility with a gym and aerobic studio, squash, volleyball and tennis courts, a main pool and a baby pool with slide, a small supermarket and the Reform Social & Grill restaurant. There is no hospital inside The Lakes; residents typically drive to Saudi German Hospital, Al Zahra Hospital or American Hospital Dubai, all cited by Bayut as conveniently close, while clinics in neighbouring Jumeirah Lake Towers cover routine care within about 10 minutes.
Lifestyle
Dining and retail
Reform Social & Grill, inside The Lakes Club, covers casual dining without leaving the community. For a wider selection, Dubai Marina Mall is about 7 to 8 minutes away and Mall of the Emirates around 13 minutes, both reachable via Al Khail Road and Sheikh Zayed Road (E11) — a shorter trip than from some of the more inland Emirates Living communities.
Landmarks and things to do
The Lakes’ defining feature is its position between two golf courses — the Address Montgomerie Golf Club and the Emirates Golf Club, the latter a long-running fixture on the European golf tour calendar. The Lakes Club provides on-site sport and leisure for residents, and Dubai Marina’s waterfront promenade, restaurants and Yacht Club are around 15 minutes away for a change of scene, with Atlantis The Palm about 18 minutes away.
Outdoor space
Each of the six sub-communities carries its own shared pools, landscaped parks, BBQ areas and children’s playgrounds, alongside community-wide sports grounds covering tennis, basketball, squash and football. Villas backing onto the community’s internal lakes or the surrounding golf courses get water or fairway views as part of the setting rather than a separately paid extra.
Honest downsides — what to know before you commit
The Lakes is one of the pricier entry points among Dubai’s established Emaar villa communities — Bayut’s listings-based averages put even a 2-bedroom villa at roughly AED 5,400,000, well above The Springs’ comparable 2-bedroom average of AED 3,846,000 — so buyers chasing the lowest entry price in Emirates Living should look at The Springs instead. The community’s own villa price index fell 7.61% over the past 12 months, driven by a steep 20.47% drop in 5-bed pricing specifically, a genuine consideration for anyone buying a larger unit purely for capital appreciation rather than lifestyle. There is no school inside The Lakes itself, unlike The Springs (Dubai British School) or The Meadows (Emirates International School – Meadows), so families need to factor in a short drive or walk to a neighbouring Emirates Living community for schooling. And as with every community in this part of Dubai, there is no Metro station on site — the roughly 6-minute drive to Al Khail Metro is manageable but still means a car is close to essential for daily life.
Location
How The Lakes compares to The Springs and The Meadows
The Springs is the more affordable Emirates Living comparison: more than 4,800 semi-detached and terraced townhouses across 15 sub-communities, two to four bedrooms only, priced at roughly AED 2,200 per sq ft (up 7.84% over 12 months, per Bayut’s own price index) — cheaper per square foot than The Lakes and without the golf-course frontage, but with Dubai British School inside the gates. The Meadows is the closer comparison on bedroom range and villa scale: more than 1,800 villas across nine sub-communities, three to seven bedrooms like The Lakes, priced at AED 2,889 per sq ft (up 7.47% over 12 months) and backing onto the Montgomerie Golf Club, with Emirates International School – Meadows inside the community itself — a larger, currently appreciating villa stock set against The Lakes’ smaller, currently declining one. Choose The Springs for the lowest entry price and an on-site British school; choose The Meadows for a larger villa count, an on-site IB school and a market currently on the rise; choose The Lakes for the tightest golf-and-lake setting of the three — bordered by two golf courses rather than one — at the cost of the highest entry price among the three and no school inside the gates.
Getting to and from The Lakes
The Lakes sits off First Al Khail Street, with Al Khail Road (E44) beyond it giving direct access to Dubai Media City and Dubai Marina, about 11 minutes away along with Palm Jumeirah. Dubai International Airport is roughly a 30-minute drive. Al Khail Metro Station on the Red Line is about 6 minutes away by car, and the F31 bus serves The Lakes Turnoff Bus Stop on First Al Khail Street for residents without a car — though, as with the rest of Emirates Living, almost every daily journey from The Lakes in practice is a car journey.
Is The Lakes a good investment?
The case for The Lakes is less about near-term capital appreciation — the community’s own price index fell 7.61% over the past year — and more about a scarce, golf-course-bordered position within Emaar’s original Emirates Living portfolio, at a genuinely established address with more than two decades of resale history behind it. Yields cluster between 3.10% and 4.74% depending on unit size, with smaller villas outperforming larger ones on both yield and recent price movement. Buyers chasing income should look closely at 2- and 3-bedroom units, where yields and price trends both hold up noticeably better than the community’s larger stock; buyers chasing a long-hold golf-and-lake address may be less concerned by a single year’s dip in the 5- and 6-bed segments. As always, get a current DLD-verified valuation for a specific cluster and villa size before treating any of the figures above as more than a starting point.
FAQs about The Lakes
Is The Lakes freehold?
Yes — registered as a freehold community under the Regulation No. 3 of 2006 framework and the designations added since, open to all nationalities.
Does it have a Metro station?
No — the nearest is Al Khail Metro Station on the Red Line, about a 6-minute drive away, with the F31 bus serving The Lakes Turnoff Bus Stop on First Al Khail Street.
Are there schools in The Lakes?
Not inside the community itself. Regent International School (Very Good, KHDA) sits in neighbouring The Greens and is walkable from the Hattan 3 and Ghadeer clusters; Dubai International Academy is a short drive away in Emirates Hills, though Fidu could not independently confirm its reported Outstanding KHDA rating via KHDA’s own site during research for this guide.
What are service charges like?
Fidu could not confirm a Lakes-specific rate; the general Dubai villa-community band runs roughly AED 2–6 per sq ft per year (Driven Properties Service Charge Index, 2026) — check Mollak for your exact cluster and villa type.
Is it still under construction?
No — The Lakes has been fully built out for many years, with no active development inside the community.
What does a 3-bed villa cost in The Lakes?
Bayut’s listings-based average is around AED 8,353,000 to buy or AED 316,000 a year to rent, as of mid-2026 — asking prices from live listings, not confirmed DLD transaction averages.
Sources and methodology
The Lakes did not appear in Bayut’s citywide Dubai Sales Market Report H1 2026 (DLD-transaction-based but limited to a set of larger or higher-profile communities), checked directly against the report published 29 Jul 2026 — bayut.com/mybayut/dubai-sales-market-report-h1-2026. Price-per-square-foot and rent-per-square-foot index figures, and their 12-month changes: Bayut’s own villa price and rent indices for The Lakes, reference period July 2026, accessed 13 Aug 2026 — bayut.com/index/sale-prices-villas-the-lakes and bayut.com/index/rent-prices-villas-the-lakes. Average asking-price and asking-rent tables, the ROI/yield table, and individual recent sale and rental transactions (sourced from DLD records and cleaned of outliers by Bayut): Bayut’s The Lakes Dubai area guide, live listings and search activity over the trailing 12 months, accessed 13 Aug 2026 — bayut.com/area-guides/the-lakes. Comparison figures for The Springs and The Meadows are drawn from the same Bayut price indices and area guides for those communities, same access date — bayut.com/index/sale-prices-villas-the-springs, bayut.com/index/sale-prices-villas-the-meadows, bayut.com/area-guides/the-springs and bayut.com/area-guides/the-meadows.
- Freehold status: Regulation No. 3 of 2006, Dubai Land & Property Department — dlp.dubai.gov.ae.
- Golden Visa threshold: AED 2,000,000 DLD property valuation threshold.
- Schools: Regent International School’s own published KHDA outcome (Very Good, most recently published inspection cycle), cross-checked against the same rating used in Fidu’s The Springs guide — khda.gov.ae, accessed 13 Aug 2026. Dubai International Academy’s reported Outstanding rating (2023–2024 cycle) is cited by the school’s own materials and by third-party school-review sites (including edcare.ae and schoolscompared.com); Fidu could not load KHDA’s own School-Details page directly to independently verify this rating during research for this guide, so it is presented as reported rather than confirmed.
- Service charges: Driven Properties Service Charge Index, 2026, for the general Dubai villa-community band — drivenproperties.com; no Lakes-specific rate could be confirmed, so none is stated. Exact per-villa rates require checking Mollak, RERA’s official platform, directly.
- Transport, amenities, healthcare and community facilities: Bayut’s The Lakes Dubai area guide, accessed 13 Aug 2026 — bayut.com/area-guides/the-lakes.
Where a figure could not be tied to one of these named, dated sources, it is described qualitatively rather than estimated.
Properties in The Lakes
No properties found in The Lakes at the moment.
